The Loss of A Child's Imagination

What has happened to the pink horses, fairies, and goblins that existed when I was a child? Walking down the hallways of school’s I hear a lot of things, children’s voices, the laughter, and the awe. However, I am growing accustomed to hearing another sound. There is the sound of parents complaining about teachers, and teachers complaining about parents. The parents say that the teachers are not teaching their children or paying attention to them. The teachers are complaining that parents are not involved. As for the children, they are starting to sound like the adults. They are distant, and distracted. Whose fault is it that our children are no longer engaged? Some would say that it is testing; some would say that it is the lack of experience of our teachers or that they simply no longer care. I believe that children are no longer allowed to be children. Testing, our expectations, and our baggage have gotten in the way of that. We are the problem, all of us. We have stopped connecting on a level that is necessary to teach children how to dream and use their imagination. I have sat in groups with children and asked them to tell me about their dreams. I hear I want a Nintendo, or I do not know. How is it that we have simply forgotten how to allow the exploration of a fundamental principal, the imagination? It takes me several attempts before the children gain an understanding of imagination. They do not know what I am talking about. If I tell them to close their eyes and imagine something, what they imagine is having more money, getting a Gameboy, or eating Gummi Bears. Children are being taught that imagination and dreams are silly and to go sit in their boxes. I once stood in front of a classroom of 4th and 5th graders, and asked them to close their eyes. I told them that once they close their eyes they would be able to see magic. They looked at me and told me that they did not believe in magic. When I was a child, I could not wait for Sunday nights to watch a wonderful world of Disney. I wanted to see magic, sparkles, and dreams come true.


What kind of future are we creating without the idea of pink horses? Without pink horses, where does the visionary or the alchemist exist? Where will the Einstein’s and the George Elliot’s come from? What about Picasso and Monet, We all know that the skies in a Monet painting are not really that color, or are they? In one classroom, I worked with a child that simply fell asleep on a constant basis. I was told that he had narcolepsy. However, when I asked him what he dreamed about when he slept, his eyes brightened, he cracked a great big grin, and could not stop talking. I had never seen him with so much energy, and enthusiasm. Perhaps it is not narcolepsy that puts him to sleep, but boredom. He has not been engaged where it counts, in his imagination. I believe that we are failing our children, by not plugging into what is so great about being a child. Children have the ability to see what we cannot.


I have approached schools about starting programs that will really speak to children. The administrators want to stick the program into a special club, or they do not have the funds or the time. How could there not be a place for dreams and imagination. These are the ingredients for building a strong character. After all, if you do not have a dream how can you change the world. How can we create better cars or a new power source? If they tap into their imagination, and begin to use it they are told that they are being silly and need to grow up. We have stopped using our imaginations, and intuitions. We have stopped dreaming. Look at the results. We are living in a world that fear has over taken. Faeries and pink horses are needed to create what can be imagined. Faeries and pink horses are needed to change the fear. Hope is based on these ingredients. Change happens when we can see the impossible. The impossible is only obtainable when we allow ourselves to connect to our imagination, and ride the pink horses.